52 Lessons From Blogging A Year

Share This:

Photo: flickr/gr33n3gg

Today is the first-year anniversary of Frugaling! I’m very fortunate to share my lessons from the first 52 weeks of blogging. I learned an incredible amount, and I’m hoping that some of the following points inspire future bloggers and frugalers. Enjoy!

I started Frugaling on May 4, 2013. It was a shot in the dark. Within hours of buying the domain name, I had a WordPress blog running. A few days later, everything started coming together — logo included.

Networking online is even more important than in-person

When you’re just starting out, it can be funny and saddening how few people visit. You’ve probably invested some time and money to try and start this new site. Even more, you’re spending precious time writing articles (at first) that are read by no one. This is where building a network is vital to your motivation and livelihood as a blog. Connect with similar sites, offer to link, comment on their articles, and tweet/share without expecting reciprocity. Your network will build over time if you follow these steps.

Prepare for harsh criticisms of your work

Every now and then, I get a story wrong, use an inappropriate word, or botch my grammar. When I see it, I try to correct it right away. Those things bother me, too! Unfortunately, the Internet isn’t always the kindest place. It can foster some horrific personalities in some. Some people notice these errors and take to public displays of hate or vitriol. Don’t be surprised if people post on Reddit about how awful you are! Hah.

I am a firm believer that writing a lot is the most important action. I make grammatical mistakes, and I’m not afraid to admit it! When I write, it’s always flawed with room for improvement. But at least I write. I never want to suffer the paralysis that comes from worrying about whether my writing has errors. The words need to flow — mistakes included. I’m a firm believer that publishing at a feverish pace enhances my quality.

Focus on your count, rather than quality. Otherwise, you’ll be looking at one perfect paragraph and an empty site.

Success is not measured by your income, but it helps for motivation

I’d be lying if I said that making five figures in my first year of Frugaling didn’t motivate me to write better. It does! My word of caution is not to get wrapped in income as a measure of achievement. You’ll have up and down months for ad revenue — that variation doesn’t connote more or less success.

Your placement in Google searches is vital to your daily traffic and revenue. I receive about 200 hits from Google every day. Without Google, I wouldn’t have nearly the revenue I have today.

It’s okay to walk away

Sometimes I can’t write any more. Sometimes my brain is tapped for ideas. Sometimes I feel down about my writing. For me, I value the ability to walk away for a bit, and then return refueled. Every time I walk away from writing for a while, I feel the surge return. Give yourself that permission!

Social media leads to explosive growth

The most popular article on this site is called, “Too Poor To Protest: How Income Inequality Silences Your Voice.” If you search that phrase (“Too Poor To Protest”) on Google, my article is the first link. The article was shared at least 1800+ times on Facebook, over 200 times on Twitter, and over 50 times on Google+.

Little did I know that when I shared it on Reddit, it would become a trending topic on some of the largest categories on the site. I was featured on the front page of the r/Politics portion of the site, and then other people shared it across different parts of the web. Over the first three days, I received over 12,000 new visitors.

Time important articles to financial events

When tax season comes around each year, people flock to Google for advice, answers, and feedback to get a larger tax return. This year, I timed an important article with this event, and it paid off. I published an article on an important refund bonus that Amazon was offering when you purchase TurboTax with them. Using an affiliate link, it paid over $200 in ad revenue for that one article.

Write, re-read, schedule, re-read

New articles flash in my head. Usually, I push every other priority out of the way and write for a good 45-60 minutes. After one of these crazy writing flashes, I’ll normally have about 600-700 words. Now, I re-read the article to check for flow and errors. I like to publish new articles as soon as possible, and immediately schedule them for about 5-10 minutes after the write and proofread. Then, in one last attempt to catch errors and make it sound smoother, I re-read again. I normally catch one or two major mistakes in this last round.

Share what you’re reading with your audience

If you’ve developed a following, it’s time to give them the insight that you have. If you read financial books regularly, why not share that with your audience?

I wrote an article on 3 books I recommend everyone read for a thorough understanding of current stock market dynamics and personal finance issues. On top of sharing these books, I made a little Amazon commission off each one sold.

Persistence is key to growing audience and followers

Over the course of a year, you’re probably going to doubt whether continuing to write is worth it. This is a key fork in the road for many writers. This doubt can creep in and destroy all your hard work. Here’s where it pays to keep on writing — keep trying. By publishing and writing regularly, your audience will grow rapidly and readers will know how often to expect your work. Persistence pays!

Inspire and encourage others to take up blogging, writing

When I first started Frugaling, barely anyone bothered to say “hi.” I was a no-name in a field of personal finance sites. Nobody had any reason to visit. Nowadays, I get strange/foreign reactions from followers. When I comment on a blog just starting out or follow them on Twitter, oftentimes I get these shocked responses (like they can’t believe I commented on their little ol’ site).

It’s incredible to push someone else into starting their own website. Writing and sharing in this way can be incredibly empowering. Why don’t more people try it!?

Pick an intrinsic passion

Maybe this is obvious, but you shouldn’t ever blog about anything you’re not entirely passionate about intrinsically. Sharing your views and ideas with the world is wonderful, but if you’re not excited every day, you’ll become bored and lose the focus/desire to publish more.

Seek mentors that have done it before

When I first started blogging, I sent a number of emails to top personal finance writers. I wanted to hear about what worked for them and how they built terrific, large audiences. Their insight was priceless. It cultivated and honed my own abilities as a writer and entrepreneur.

Recently, I began interviewing the best bloggers in the community. I absolutely love hearing about what motivated other people to begin writing about this important topic.

Writing a book is easier when blogging regularly

This summer, I’m hoping to turn a few key articles and themes into a top-notch Kindle book for you all. With nearly 200 articles to choose from and various important themes, I cannot wait to compile some into a book. By itself, writing an entire book would’ve been daunting, but now I have tons to choose from and thousands upon thousands of written words.

The technology you use needn’t be advanced

Nowadays, I recommend people check out Chromebooks. They’re Google’s take on laptops. If you’re just going to be blogging, you only need a keyboard, web host, and WordPress. Yes, you can benefit from more advanced setups, but the basics are exceptionally affordable. Entering into the blogging world should not be analogous to starting a normal company — keep costs in line with that idea.

Inevitably, your web host will crash

Hopefully the downtime won’t be during a highly-trafficked period. Unfortunately, that always seems like the exact moment when everything crashes. A couple of my most popular or money-making articles pushed my web host offline, and cost me hundreds of dollars (in lost revenue) in the process.

Web hosting is more important than you think

At first, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the basic idea that you start writing and it’s on the Internet. But behind all this tech magic is an intricate layer of data connections. Certain web hosts are notorious for poor performance. Choose a web host that’s known for rapid connections. The faster your site loads, the higher ranking you’ll receive from Google.

Sometimes airing your dirty laundry is the best idea

The amount of support received is mindboggling. Whenever I write a more personal article, readers comment their support and understanding. The community of personal finance writers is incredibly positive.

Frequent readers prefer shorter articles

My most popular articles with the regular audience tend to be thought-provoking questions about how to deal with financial problems. These articles are normally about 500-700 words. They tend to be well-shared among the personal finance community, friends, and family.

Longer articles are better for Google

These posts spread like wildfire and attract new readers to the site. Google tends to rank these articles higher on the search rankings, too.

The tax man says I run a business

This was the first year that I had to fill out a Schedule C for my taxes. This portion of the massive IRS bureaucracy deals solely with profit and loss from a business. Now, all that advertising revenue adds up to a hefty tax loss. Fortunately, I can write off any business expenses. For example, paying writers, hosting fees, and travel related to work can all be deducted.

Experiment with new projects

Throughout this first year, I tried a few frugal projects. One of my most popular was trying to go 7 days without spending any money. Another one was my experiment with an all-cash diet. Both offered a win-win for me and my audiences, as I could share my experiences and help others in the process.

Haters gonna hate

The Internet is full of haters that use hurtful, vitriolic language to convey awful opinions. Let them hate. If you’re receiving strange messages and hearing how others disagree with you, just think: you’re on the right track and building an audience.

Speed up your website for better Google results

There are some simple programs you should use to speed up your website. I’d recommend checking out W3 Total Cache, Smush.it, and looking into loading “script” sources asynchronously. This last change will help heavy data elements on your page load last — the important content will load in the mean time.

In the personal finance domain, talking about money isn’t taboo. Your openness is rewarded. Whenever I hit a milestone — like paying off $25,000 in student loans — my readers shared in the success and encouraged me to keep going. I really wouldn’t be able to do it without them.

Men visit way more often than women

Not entirely sure what contributes to this statistic, but about 70% of the visitors to this site are men.

Most are aged 25-34

My audience is primarily younger, and just starting out on their independent financial journeys. Likely, many are fresh out of college, new to the working world, and looking for ways to save and make more money.

Start a blog as a side hobby, then consider full-time

The perfect opportunity to blog is when you already have a full-time job. Blogging can be done in between busy periods, weekends, and anywhere you find an extra 15-60 mins. It’s the perfect side hustle!

Ask friends and family to chime in, visit the site, and/or provide feedback

Close ones can lead to important areas of improvement in the design and content of your site. I’m fortunate that there are a number of great writers and readers among my family and friends. They constantly provide important feedback that helps me improve.

The focus isn’t money — it’s being able to live the life you desire

While running and writing for Frugaling has paid off — big time — the focus wasn’t ever solely on money. Rather, I started Frugaling to hone my writing ability, share my stories, and work on reducing my debt. The advertising money followed, and it’s been a wonderful bonus to the main purposes.

Basic text editors help me write ideas and prep new stories

I get new ideas everywhere I go. Whenever something pops into my head, I write it down and often begin writing. I have found that taking advantage of new energy gets the articles finished faster.

Google Drive (with Docs), Apple’s Reminders app, and the built-in TextEdit program all help me stay on track.

A purpose-driven blog, but I drive that purpose

This article — the one I’m writing right now — doesn’t necessarily fall into the tight bounds of personal finance. And if you’re frustrated by this tangential article, feel free to unsubscribe. While I consider this a purpose-driven blog, it’s a purpose I drive — not the other way around. Over this year, I had multiple people criticize my publications on blogging, ads, etc. Many suggested they were frustrated that I didn’t stick to finance-related articles. For the most part I do, but every now and then I love using this platform to speak about something else.

Most of the money earned came from affiliate advertising for various banking products. The amount of money that can be made from these financial products and advertisements is shocking; like, five figures of shock.

I’m willing to work even harder to stay out of debt now

I refuse to make the same mistakes I made to get into massive amounts of debt. Starting this site helped me see the value in working to change my financial circumstances.

There are many more ways to save

There isn’t one comprehensive list that could cover all the ways you can save money every day. When writing articles on this subject, I’ve enjoyed putting on my thinking cap. In a way, it takes a creativity to save even more than others.

I was ignorant to the power of excessive student loans

Somewhere between denial and stupidity, I took out massive amounts of student loans over the first two years of graduate school. On track for $100k by the end, I was awakened to the reality of how long they would take to pay off. No one at my universities ever tried to explain the consequences of all these student loans. After a year of active research and reading, I’m beginning to understand how others get into this mess — universities are culpable.

Our consumer society has horrible consequences

Sometimes I’m able to reduce my spending solely because of the burden my consumerism may place on the environment. I want to reduce my emissions and harm to the Earth. It helps keep me from impulse buying for new clothes and electronics, when I think about the bigger picture.

You can actually make yourself happy with money

This year I read a couple key research articles that shared the results of what actually makes people happy when they have money. Most often, happiness comes from helping others and giving to important causes — putting your money to work to help others.

The personal finance community content sometimes gets repetitive

This is not a universal truth, but there are some basic finance stories that seem to spread to every site. Oftentimes, these articles focus on minor savings on coffee. Why coffee?

I live for the articles that get really personal or uniquely approach financial problems.

Guest bloggers and paid staff are a wonderful addition

I had two regular guest bloggers over the course of this year. While I couldn’t pay them much (as all my money was going to pay off debt), I did give them a little. I got to practice my own copy editing skills, and they filled gaps when I couldn’t come up with new content (for a number of reasons).

I’m really dependent on and thankful for Google products

I mentioned Google Drive for writing articles, but I use Google for nearly everything. From researching new articles to checking my site stats to seeing my AdSense revenue, Google is at the heart of my success.

The Internet allows for any niche

My audience — you! — is a unique crew. Nowadays, there’s a group of people for any kind of writing. This is an empowering time to start publishing.

Be generous with your links to other sites

Whenever I write an article or publish an interview, I try to link to every site therein. I believe that generosity is genuinely rewarded on the Internet and often encourages the recipient to look at your site in return. This can open great networking opportunities!

Writing for free is risky

I’ve written for free and had both positive and negative experiences. Once, I wrote a 2000 word article and the company decided they didn’t want to publish the article anymore. That sucked.

I would only recommend writing for free if there’s an exchange of traffic and future readers in the process.

Frugaling received over 225,000 pageviews for the year

This is more than just a statistic. It brings a tear to my eye. I guess I learned that people do enjoy reading my articles and seem to appreciate what I have to offer. That’s more exciting than anything else.

The readers are vital to my motivation

Without you, I wouldn’t have the motivation to work this hard; in turn, I wouldn’t have paid off massive amount of debt. Thank you for giving me the courage, energy, and hope to strive for a better life.

I’m glad to see your success Sam. While I never really expect to make much money off of my blog, I am hoping to one day be able to pay my internet bill. I think that will be the milestone that I’m looking forward to.

With all the travel/points sites out there, it’s hard to stay up with them all. I ran across yours one time and have been a regular since. I like the way it’s laid out, easy to grab the salient points from and always seems pertinent to my interests. Kudos Sam!